List indexes on a recursive program? - prolog

I've been searching for something that might help me with my problem all over the internet but I haven't been able to make any progress. I'm new to logic programming and English is not my first language so apologize for any mistake.
Basically I want to implement this prolog program: discord/3 which has arguments L1, L2 lists and P where P are the indexes of the lists where L1[P] != L2[P] (in Java). In case of different lengths, the not paired indexes just fail. Mode is (+,+,-) nondet.
I got down the basic case but I can't seem to wrap my head around on how to define P in the recursive call.
discord(_X,[],_Y) :-
fail.
discord([H1|T1],[H1|T2],Y) :-
???
discord(T1,T2,Z).
discord([_|T1],[_|T2],Y) :-
???
discord(T1,T2,Z).
The two clauses above are what I came up to but I have no idea on how to represent Y - and Z - so that the function actually remembers the length of the original list. I've been thinking about using nth/3 with eventually an assert but I'm not sure where to place them in the program.
I'm sure there has to be an easier solution although. Thanks in advance!

You can approach this in two ways. First, the more declarative way would be to enumerate the indexed elements of both lists with nth1/3 and use dif/2 to ensure that the two elements are different:
?- L1 = [a,b,c,d],
L2 = [x,b,y,d],
dif(X, Y),
nth1(P, L1, X),
nth1(P, L2, Y).
X = a, Y = x, P = 1 ;
X = c, Y = y, P = 3 ;
false.
You could also attempt to go through both list at the same time and keep a counter:
discord(L1, L2, P) :-
discord(L1, L2, 1, P).
discord([X|_], [Y|_], P, P) :-
dif(X, Y).
discord([_|Xs], [_|Ys], N, P) :-
succ(N, N1),
discord(Xs, Ys, N1, P).
Then, from the top level:
?- discord([a,b,c,d], [a,x,c,y], Ps).
Ps = 2 ;
Ps = 4 ;
false.

Related

Prolog - count occurrence of number

I want to write predicate which can count all encountered number:
count(1, [1,0,0,1,0], X).
X = 2.
I tried to write it like:
count(_, [], 0).
count(Num, [H|T], X) :- count(Num, T, X1), Num = H, X is X1 + 1.
Why doesn't work it?
Why doesn't work it?
Prolog is a programming language that often can answer such question directly. Look how I tried out your definition starting with your failing query:
?- count(1, [1,0,0,1,0], X).
false.
?- count(1, Xs, X).
Xs = [], X = 0
; Xs = [1], X = 1
; Xs = [1,1], X = 2
; Xs = [1,1,1], X = 3
; ... .
?- Xs = [_,_,_], count(1, Xs, X).
Xs = [1,1,1], X = 3.
So first I realized that the query does not work at all, then I generalized the query. I replaced the big list by a variable Xs and said: Prolog, fill in the blanks for me! And Prolog did this and reveals us precisely the cases when it will succeed.
In fact, it only succeeds with lists of 1s only. That is odd. Your definition is too restricted - it correctly counts the 1s in lists where there are only ones, but all other lists are rejected. #coder showed you how to extend your definition.
Here is another one using library(reif) for
SICStus|SWI. Alternatively, see tfilter/3.
count(X, Xs, N) :-
tfilter(=(X), Xs, Ys),
length(Ys, N).
A definition more in the style of the other definitions:
count(_, [], 0).
count(E, [X|Xs], N0) :-
if_(E = X, C = 1, C = 0),
count(E, Xs, N1),
N0 is N1+C.
And now for some more general uses:
How does a four element list look like that has 3 times a 1 in it?
?- length(L, 4), count(1, L, 3).
L = [1,1,1,_A], dif(1,_A)
; L = [1,1,_A,1], dif(1,_A)
; L = [1,_A,1,1], dif(1,_A)
; L = [_A,1,1,1], dif(1,_A)
; false.
So the remaining element must be something different from 1.
That's the fine generality Prolog offers us.
The problem is that as stated by #lurker if condition (or better unification) fails then the predicate will fail. You could make another clause for this purpose, using dif/2 which is pure and defined in the iso:
count(_, [], 0).
count(Num, [H|T], X) :- dif(Num,H), count(Num, T, X).
count(Num, [H|T], X) :- Num = H, count(Num, T, X1), X is X1 + 1.
The above is not the most efficient solution since it leaves many choice points but it is a quick and correct solution.
You simply let the predicate fail at the unification Num = X. Basically, it's like you don't accept terms which are different from the only one you are counting.
I propose to you this simple solution which uses tail recursion and scans the list in linear time. Despite the length, it's very efficient and elegant, it exploits declarative programming techniques and the backtracking of the Prolog engine.
count(C, L, R) :-
count(C, L, 0, R).
count(_, [], Acc, Acc).
count(C, [C|Xr], Acc, R) :-
IncAcc is Acc + 1,
count(C, Xr, IncAcc, R).
count(C, [X|Xr], Acc, R) :-
dif(X, C),
count(C, Xr, Acc, R).
count/3 is the launcher predicate. It takes the term to count, the list and gives to you the result value.
The first count/4 is the basic case of the recursion.
The second count/4 is executed when the head of the list is unified with the term you are looking for.
The third count/4 is reached upon backtracking: If the term doesn’t match, the unification fails, you won't need to increment the accumulator.
Acc allows you to scan the entire list propagating the partial result of the recursive processing. At the end you simply have to return it.
I solved it myself:
count(_, [], 0).
count(Num, [H|T], X) :- Num \= H, count(Num, T, X).
count(Num, [H|T], X) :- Num = H, count(Num, T, X1), X is X1 + 1.
I have decided to add my solution to the list here.
Other solutions here use either explicit unification/failure to unify, or libraries/other functions, but mine uses cuts and implicit unification instead. Note my solution is similar to Ilario's solution but simplifies this using cuts.
count(_, [], 0) :- !.
count(Value, [Value|Tail],Occurrences) :- !,
count(Value,Tail,TailOcc),
Occurrences is TailOcc+1.
count(Value, [_|Tail], Occurrences) :- count(Value,Tail,Occurrences).
How does this work? And how did you code it?
It is often useful to equate solving a problem like this to solving a proof by induction, with a base case, and then a inductive step which shows how to reduce the problem down.
Line 1 - base case
Line 1 (count(_, [], 0) :- !.) handles the "base case".
As we are working on a list, and have to look at each element, the simplest case is zero elements ([]). Therefore, we want a list with zero elements to have no instances of the Value we are looking for.
Note I have replaced Value in the final code with _ - this is because we do not care what value we are looking for if there are no values in the list anyway! Therefore, to avoid a singleton variable we negate it here.
I also added a ! (a cut) after this - as there is only one correct value for the number of occurrences we do not want Prolog to backtrack and fail - therefore we tell Prolog we found the correct value by adding this cut.
Lines 2/3 - inductive step
Lines 2 and 3 handle the "inductive step". This should handle if we have one or more elements in the list we are given. In Prolog we can only directly look at the head of the list, therefore let us look at one element at a time. Therefore, we have two cases - either the value at the head of the list is the Value we are looking for, or it is not.
Line 2
Line 2 (count(Value, [Value|Tail],Occurrences) :- !, count(Value,Tail,TailOcc), Occurrences is TailOcc+1.) handles if the head of our list and the value we are looking for match. Therefore, we simply use the same variable name so Prolog will unify them.
A cut is used as the first step in our solution (which makes each case mutually exclusive, and makes our solution last-call-optimised, by telling Prolog not to try any other rules).
Then, we find out how many instances of our term there are in the rest of the list (call it TailOcc). We don't know how many terms there are in the list we have at the moment, but we know it is one more than there are in the rest of the list (as we have a match).
Once we know how many instances there are in the rest of the list (call this Tail), we can take this value and add 1 to it, then return this as the last value in our count function (call this Occurences).
Line 3
Line 3 (count(Value, [_|Tail], Occurrences) :- count(Value,Tail,Occurrences).) handles if the head of our list and the value we are looking for do not match.
As we used a cut in line 2, this line will only be tried if line 2 fails (i.e. there is no match).
We simply take the number of instances in the rest of the list (the tail) and return this same value without editing it.

PROLOG: Determining if elements in list are equal if order does not matter

I'm trying to figure out a way to check if two lists are equal regardless of their order of elements.
My first attempt was:
areq([],[]).
areq([],[_|_]).
areq([H1|T1], L):- member(H1, L), areq(T1, L).
However, this only checks if all elements of the list on the left exist in the list on the right; meaning areq([1,2,3],[1,2,3,4]) => true. At this point, I need to find a way to be able to test thing in a bi-directional sense. My second attempt was the following:
areq([],[]).
areq([],[_|_]).
areq([H1|T1], L):- member(H1, L), areq(T1, L), append([H1], T1, U), areq(U, L).
Where I would try to rebuild the lest on the left and swap lists in the end; but this failed miserably.
My sense of recursion is extremely poor and simply don't know how to improve it, especially with Prolog. Any hints or suggestions would be appreciated at this point.
As a starting point, let's take the second implementation of equal_elements/2 by #CapelliC:
equal_elements([], []).
equal_elements([X|Xs], Ys) :-
select(X, Ys, Zs),
equal_elements(Xs, Zs).
Above implementation leaves useless choicepoints for queries like this one:
?- equal_elements([1,2,3],[3,2,1]).
true ; % succeeds, but leaves choicepoint
false.
What could we do? We could fix the efficiency issue by using
selectchk/3 instead of
select/3, but by doing so we would lose logical-purity! Can we do better?
We can!
Introducing selectd/3, a logically pure predicate that combines the determinism of selectchk/3 and the purity of select/3. selectd/3 is based on
if_/3 and (=)/3:
selectd(E,[A|As],Bs1) :-
if_(A = E, As = Bs1,
(Bs1 = [A|Bs], selectd(E,As,Bs))).
selectd/3 can be used a drop-in replacement for select/3, so putting it to use is easy!
equal_elementsB([], []).
equal_elementsB([X|Xs], Ys) :-
selectd(X, Ys, Zs),
equal_elementsB(Xs, Zs).
Let's see it in action!
?- equal_elementsB([1,2,3],[3,2,1]).
true. % succeeds deterministically
?- equal_elementsB([1,2,3],[A,B,C]), C=3,B=2,A=1.
A = 1, B = 2, C = 3 ; % still logically pure
false.
Edit 2015-05-14
The OP wasn't specific if the predicate
should enforce that items occur on both sides with
the same multiplicities.
equal_elementsB/2 does it like that, as shown by these two queries:
?- equal_elementsB([1,2,3,2,3],[3,3,2,1,2]).
true.
?- equal_elementsB([1,2,3,2,3],[3,3,2,1,2,3]).
false.
If we wanted the second query to succeed, we could relax the definition in a logically pure way by using meta-predicate
tfilter/3 and
reified inequality dif/3:
equal_elementsC([],[]).
equal_elementsC([X|Xs],Ys2) :-
selectd(X,Ys2,Ys1),
tfilter(dif(X),Ys1,Ys0),
tfilter(dif(X),Xs ,Xs0),
equal_elementsC(Xs0,Ys0).
Let's run two queries like the ones above, this time using equal_elementsC/2:
?- equal_elementsC([1,2,3,2,3],[3,3,2,1,2]).
true.
?- equal_elementsC([1,2,3,2,3],[3,3,2,1,2,3]).
true.
Edit 2015-05-17
As it is, equal_elementsB/2 does not universally terminate in cases like the following:
?- equal_elementsB([],Xs), false. % terminates universally
false.
?- equal_elementsB([_],Xs), false. % gives a single answer, but ...
%%% wait forever % ... does not terminate universally
If we flip the first and second argument, however, we get termination!
?- equal_elementsB(Xs,[]), false. % terminates universally
false.
?- equal_elementsB(Xs,[_]), false. % terminates universally
false.
Inspired by an answer given by #AmiTavory, we can improve the implementation of equal_elementsB/2 by "sharpening" the solution set like so:
equal_elementsBB(Xs,Ys) :-
same_length(Xs,Ys),
equal_elementsB(Xs,Ys).
To check if non-termination is gone, we put queries using both predicates head to head:
?- equal_elementsB([_],Xs), false.
%%% wait forever % does not terminate universally
?- equal_elementsBB([_],Xs), false.
false. % terminates universally
Note that the same "trick" does not work with equal_elementsC/2,
because of the size of solution set is infinite (for all but the most trivial instances of interest).
A simple solution using the sort/2 ISO standard built-in predicate, assuming that neither list contains duplicated elements:
equal_elements(List1, List2) :-
sort(List1, Sorted1),
sort(List2, Sorted2),
Sorted1 == Sorted2.
Some sample queries:
| ?- equal_elements([1,2,3],[1,2,3,4]).
no
| ?- equal_elements([1,2,3],[3,1,2]).
yes
| ?- equal_elements([a(X),a(Y),a(Z)],[a(1),a(2),a(3)]).
no
| ?- equal_elements([a(X),a(Y),a(Z)],[a(Z),a(X),a(Y)]).
yes
In Prolog you often can do exactly what you say
areq([],_).
areq([H1|T1], L):- member(H1, L), areq(T1, L).
bi_areq(L1, L2) :- areq(L1, L2), areq(L2, L1).
Rename if necessary.
a compact form:
member_(Ys, X) :- member(X, Ys).
equal_elements(Xs, Xs) :- maplist(member_(Ys), Xs).
but, using member/2 seems inefficient, and leave space to ambiguity about duplicates (on both sides). Instead, I would use select/3
?- [user].
equal_elements([], []).
equal_elements([X|Xs], Ys) :-
select(X, Ys, Zs),
equal_elements(Xs, Zs).
^D here
1 ?- equal_elements(X, [1,2,3]).
X = [1, 2, 3] ;
X = [1, 3, 2] ;
X = [2, 1, 3] ;
X = [2, 3, 1] ;
X = [3, 1, 2] ;
X = [3, 2, 1] ;
false.
2 ?- equal_elements([1,2,3,3], [1,2,3]).
false.
or, better,
equal_elements(Xs, Ys) :- permutation(Xs, Ys).
The other answers are all elegant (way above my own Prolog level), but it struck me that the question stated
efficient for the regular uses.
The accepted answer is O(max(|A| log(|A|), |B|log(|B|)), irrespective of whether the lists are equal (up to permutation) or not.
At the very least, it would pay to check the lengths before bothering to sort, which would decrease the runtime to something linear in the lengths of the lists in the case where they are not of equal length.
Expanding this, it is not difficult to modify the solution so that its runtime is effectively linear in the general case where the lists are not equal (up to permutation), using random digests.
Suppose we define
digest(L, D) :- digest(L, 1, D).
digest([], D, D) :- !.
digest([H|T], Acc, D) :-
term_hash(H, TH),
NewAcc is mod(Acc * TH, 1610612741),
digest(T, NewAcc, D).
This is the Prolog version of the mathematical function Prod_i h(a_i) | p, where h is the hash, and p is a prime. It effectively maps each list to a random (in the hashing sense) value in the range 0, ...., p - 1 (in the above, p is the large prime 1610612741).
We can now check if two lists have the same digest:
same_digests(A, B) :-
digest(A, DA),
digest(B, DB),
DA =:= DB.
If two lists have different digests, they cannot be equal. If two lists have the same digest, then there is a tiny chance that they are unequal, but this still needs to be checked. For this case I shamelessly stole Paulo Moura's excellent answer.
The final code is this:
equal_elements(A, B) :-
same_digests(A, B),
sort(A, SortedA),
sort(B, SortedB),
SortedA == SortedB.
same_digests(A, B) :-
digest(A, DA),
digest(B, DB),
DA =:= DB.
digest(L, D) :- digest(L, 1, D).
digest([], D, D) :- !.
digest([H|T], Acc, D) :-
term_hash(H, TH),
NewAcc is mod(Acc * TH, 1610612741),
digest(T, NewAcc, D).
One possibility, inspired on qsort:
split(_,[],[],[],[]) :- !.
split(X,[H|Q],S,E,G) :-
compare(R,X,H),
split(R,X,[H|Q],S,E,G).
split(<,X,[H|Q],[H|S],E,G) :-
split(X,Q,S,E,G).
split(=,X,[X|Q],S,[X|E],G) :-
split(X,Q,S,E,G).
split(>,X,[H|Q],S,E,[H|G]) :-
split(X,Q,S,E,G).
cmp([],[]).
cmp([H|Q],L2) :-
split(H,Q,S1,E1,G1),
split(H,L2,S2,[H|E1],G2),
cmp(S1,S2),
cmp(G1,G2).
A simple solution using cut.
areq(A,A):-!.
areq([A|B],[C|D]):-areq(A,C,D,E),areq(B,E).
areq(A,A,B,B):-!.
areq(A,B,[C|D],[B|E]):-areq(A,C,D,E).
Some sample queries:
?- areq([],[]).
true.
?- areq([1],[]).
false.
?- areq([],[1]).
false.
?- areq([1,2,3],[3,2,1]).
true.
?- areq([1,1,2,2],[2,1,2,1]).
true.

Split a list in separate lists

I have to define some more constraints for my list.
I want to split my list is separate lists.
Example:
List=[[1,1],[_,0],[_,0],[_,0],[3,1],[_,0],[9,1],[2,0],[4,0]]
I need three Lists which i get from the main list:
[[_,0],[_,0],[_,0]] and [[_,0]] and [[2,0],[4,0]]
SO I always need a group of lists between a term with [X,1].
It would be great if u could give me a tip. Don’t want the solution, only a tip how to solve this.
Jörg
This implementation tries to preserve logical-purity without restricting the list items to be [_,_], like
#false's answer does.
I can see that imposing above restriction does make a lot of sense... still I would like to lift it---and attack the more general problem.
The following is based on if_/3, splitlistIf/3 and reified predicate, marker_truth/2.
marker_truth(M,T) reifies the "marker"-ness of M into the truth value T (true or false).
is_marker([_,1]). % non-reified
marker_truth([_,1],true). % reified: variant #1
marker_truth(Xs,false) :-
dif(Xs,[_,1]).
Easy enough! Let's try splitlistIf/3 and marker_truth/2 together in a query:
?- Ls=[[1,1],[_,0],[_,0],[_,0],[3,1],[_,0],[9,1],[2,0],[4,0]],
splitlistIf(marker_truth,Ls,Pss).
Ls = [[1,1],[_A,0],[_B,0],[_C,0],[3,1],[_D,0],[9,1],[2,0],[4,0]],
Pss = [ [[_A,0],[_B,0],[_C,0]], [[_D,0]], [[2,0],[4,0]]] ? ; % OK
Ls = [[1,1],[_A,0],[_B,0],[_C,0],[3,1],[_D,0],[9,1],[2,0],[4,0]],
Pss = [ [[_A,0],[_B,0],[_C,0]], [[_D,0],[9,1],[2,0],[4,0]]],
prolog:dif([9,1],[_E,1]) ? ; % BAD
%% query aborted (6 other BAD answers omitted)
D'oh!
The second answer shown above is certainly not what we wanted.
Clearly, splitlistIf/3 should have split Ls at that point,
as the goal is_marker([9,1]) succeeds. It didn't. Instead, we got an answer with a frozen dif/2 goal that will never be woken up, because it is waiting for the instantiation of the anonymous variable _E.
Guess who's to blame! The second clause of marker_truth/2:
marker_truth(Xs,false) :- dif(Xs,[_,1]). % BAD
What can we do about it? Use our own inequality predicate that doesn't freeze on a variable which will never be instantiated:
marker_truth(Xs,Truth) :- % variant #2
freeze(Xs, marker_truth__1(Xs,Truth)).
marker_truth__1(Xs,Truth) :-
( Xs = [_|Xs0]
-> freeze(Xs0, marker_truth__2(Xs0,Truth))
; Truth = false
).
marker_truth__2(Xs,Truth) :-
( Xs = [X|Xs0]
-> when((nonvar(X);nonvar(Xs0)), marker_truth__3(X,Xs0,Truth))
; Truth = false
).
marker_truth__3(X,Xs0,Truth) :- % X or Xs0 have become nonvar
( nonvar(X)
-> ( X == 1
-> freeze(Xs0,(Xs0 == [] -> Truth = true ; Truth = false))
; Truth = false
)
; Xs0 == []
-> freeze(X,(X == 1 -> Truth = true ; Truth = false))
; Truth = false
).
All this code, for expressing the safe logical negation of is_marker([_,1])? UGLY!
Let's see if it (at least) helped above query (the one which gave so many useless answers)!
?- Ls=[[1,1],[_,0],[_,0],[_,0],[3,1],[_,0],[9,1],[2,0],[4,0]],
splitlistIf(marker_truth,Ls,Pss).
Ls = [[1,1],[_A,0],[_B,0],[_C,0],[3,1],[_D,0],[9,1],[2,0],[4,0]],
Pss = [[ [_A,0],[_B,0],[_C,0]], [[_D,0]], [[2,0],[4,0]]] ? ;
no
It works! When considering the coding effort required, however, it is clear that either a code generation scheme or a
variant of dif/2 (which shows above behaviour) will have to be devised.
Edit 2015-05-25
Above implementation marker_truth/2 somewhat works, but leaves a lot to be desired. Consider:
?- marker_truth(M,Truth). % most general use
freeze(M, marker_truth__1(M, Truth)).
This answer is not what we would like to get. To see why not, let's look at the answers of a comparable use of integer_truth/2:
?- integer_truth(I,Truth). % most general use
Truth = true, freeze(I, integer(I)) ;
Truth = false, freeze(I, \+integer(I)).
Two answers in the most general case---that's how a reified predicate should behave like!
Let's recode marker_truth/2 accordingly:
marker_truth(Xs,Truth) :- subsumes_term([_,1],Xs), !, Truth = true.
marker_truth(Xs,Truth) :- Xs \= [_,1], !, Truth = false.
marker_truth([_,1],true).
marker_truth(Xs ,false) :- nonMarker__1(Xs).
nonMarker__1(T) :- var(T), !, freeze(T,nonMarker__1(T)).
nonMarker__1(T) :- T = [_|Arg], !, nonMarker__2(Arg).
nonMarker__1(_).
nonMarker__2(T) :- var(T), !, freeze(T,nonMarker__2(T)).
nonMarker__2(T) :- T = [_|_], !, dif(T,[1]).
nonMarker__2(_).
Let's re-run above query with the new implementation of marker_truth/2:
?- marker_truth(M,Truth). % most general use
Truth = true, M = [_A,1] ;
Truth = false, freeze(M, nonMarker__1(M)).
It is not clear what you mean by a "group of lists". In your example you start with [1,1] which fits your criterion of [_,1]. So shouldn't there be an empty list in the beginning? Or maybe you meant that it all starts with such a marker?
And what if there are further markers around?
First you need to define the criterion for a marker element. This for both cases: When it applies and when it does not apply and thus this is an element in between.
marker([_,1]).
nonmarker([_,C]) :-
dif(1, C).
Note that with these predicates we imply that every element has to be [_,_]. You did not state it, but it does make sense.
split(Xs, As, Bs, Cs) :-
phrase(three_seqs(As, Bs, Cs), Xs).
marker -->
[E],
{marker(E)}.
three_seqs(As, Bs, Cs) -->
marker,
all_seq(nonmarker, As),
marker,
all_seq(nonmarker, Bs),
marker,
all_seq(nonmarker, Cs).
For a definition of all_seq//2 see this
In place of marker, one could write all_seq(marker,[_])
You can use a predicate like append/3. For example, to split a list on the first occurence of the atom x in it, you would say:
?- L = [a,b,c,d,x,e,f,g,x,h,i,j], once(append(Before, [x|After], L)).
L = [a, b, c, d, x, e, f, g, x|...],
Before = [a, b, c, d],
After = [e, f, g, x, h, i, j].
As #false has pointed out, putting an extra requirement might change your result, but this is what is nice about using append/3:
"Split the list on x so that the second part starts with h:
?- L = [a,b,c,d,x,e,f,g,x,h,i,j], After = [h|_], append(Before, [x|After], L).
L = [a, b, c, d, x, e, f, g, x|...],
After = [h, i, j],
Before = [a, b, c, d, x, e, f, g].
This is just the tip.

Intersection of two lists of variables

How to define in ISO Prolog a (meta-logical) predicate for the intersection of two lists of variables that runs in linear time? The variables may appear in any determined order. No implementation dependent property like the "age" of variables must influence the outcome.
In analogy to library(ordsets), let's call the relation varset_intersection(As, Bs, As_cap_Bs).
?- varset_intersection([A,B], [C,D], []).
true.
?-varset_intersection([A,B], [B,A], []).
false.
?- varset_intersection([A,B,C], [C,A,D], Inter).
Inter = [A,C].
or
Inter = [C,A].
?- varset_intersection([A,B],[A,B],[A,C]).
B = C
or
A = B, A = C
?- varset_intersection([A,B,C],[A,B],[A,C]).
idem
That is, the third argument is an output argument, that unifies with the intersection of the first two arguments.
See this list of the built-ins from the current ISO standard (ISO/IEC 13211-1:1995 including Cor.2).
(Note, that I did answer this question in the course of another one several years ago. However, it remains hidden and invisible to Google.)
If term_variables/2 works in a time linear with the size of its first argument, then this might work:
varset_intersection(As, Bs, As_cap_Bs):-
term_variables([As, Bs], As_and_Bs),
term_variables(As, SetAs),
append(SetAs, OnlyBs, As_and_Bs),
term_variables([OnlyBs, Bs], SetBs),
append(OnlyBs, As_cap_Bs, SetBs).
Each common variable appears only once in the result list no matter how many times it appears in the two given lists.
?- varset_intersection2([A,_C,A,A,A], [A,_B,A,A,A], L).
L = [A].
Also, it might give strange results as in this case:
?- varset_intersection([A,_X,B,C], [B,C,_Y,A], [C, A, B]).
A = B, B = C.
(permutation/2 might help here).
If copy_term/2 uses linear time, I believe the following works:
varset_intersection(As, Bs, Cs) :-
copy_term(As-Bs, CopyAs-CopyBs),
ground_list(CopyAs),
select_grounded(CopyBs, Bs, Cs).
ground_list([]).
ground_list([a|Xs]) :-
ground_list(Xs).
select_grounded([], [], []).
select_grounded([X|Xs], [_|Bs], Cs) :-
var(X),
!,
select_grounded(Xs, Bs, Cs).
select_grounded([_|Xs], [B|Bs], [B|Cs]) :-
select_grounded(Xs, Bs, Cs).
The idea is to copy both lists in one call to copy_term/2 to preserve shared variables between them, then ground the variables of the first copy, then pick out the original variables of the second list corresponding to the grounded positions of the second copy.
If unify_with_occurs_check(Var, ListOfVars) fails or succeeds in constant time, this implementation should yield answers in linear time:
filter_vars([], _, Acc, Acc).
filter_vars([A|As], Bs, Acc, As_cap_Bs):-
(
\+ unify_with_occurs_check(A, Bs)
->
filter_vars(As, Bs, [A|Acc], As_cap_Bs)
;
filter_vars(As, Bs, Acc, As_cap_Bs)
).
varset_intersection(As, Bs, As_cap_Bs):-
filter_vars(As, Bs, [], Inter),
permutation(Inter, As_cap_Bs).
This implementation has problems when given lists contain duplicates:
?- varset_intersection1([A,A,A,A,B], [B,A], L).
L = [B, A, A, A, A] ;
?- varset_intersection1([B,A], [A,A,A,A,B], L).
L = [A, B] ;
Edited : changed bagof/3 to a manually written filter thanks to observation by #false in comments below.
A possible solution is to use a Bloom filter. In case of collision, the result might be wrong, but functions with better collision resistance exist. Here is an implementation that uses a single hash function.
sum_codes([], _, Sum, Sum).
sum_codes([Head|Tail], K, Acc,Sum):-
Acc1 is Head * (256 ** K) + Acc,
K1 is (K + 1) mod 4,
sum_codes(Tail, K1, Acc1, Sum).
hash_func(Var, HashValue):-
with_output_to(atom(A), write(Var)),
atom_codes(A, Codes),
sum_codes(Codes, 0, 0, Sum),
HashValue is Sum mod 1024.
add_to_bitarray(Var, BAIn, BAOut):-
hash_func(Var, HashValue),
BAOut is BAIn \/ (1 << HashValue).
bitarray_contains(BA, Var):-
hash_func(Var, HashValue),
R is BA /\ (1 << HashValue),
R > 0.
varset_intersection(As, Bs, As_cap_Bs):-
foldl(add_to_bitarray, As, 0, BA),
include(bitarray_contains(BA), Bs, As_cap_Bs).
I know that foldl/4 and include/3 are not ISO, but their implementation is easy.

Count occurrences Prolog

I'm new in Prolog and trying to do some programming with Lists
I want to do this :
?- count_occurrences([a,b,c,a,b,c,d], X).
X = [[d, 1], [c, 2], [b, 2], [a, 2]].
and this is my code I know it's not complete but I'm trying:
count_occurrences([],[]).
count_occurrences([X|Y],A):-
occurrences([X|Y],X,N).
occurrences([],_,0).
occurrences([X|Y],X,N):- occurrences(Y,X,W), N is W + 1.
occurrences([X|Y],Z,N):- occurrences(Y,Z,N), X\=Z.
My code is wrong so i need some hits or help plz..
Here's my solution using bagof/3 and findall/3:
count_occurrences(List, Occ):-
findall([X,L], (bagof(true,member(X,List),Xs), length(Xs,L)), Occ).
An example
?- count_occurrences([a,b,c,b,e,d,a,b,a], Occ).
Occ = [[a, 3], [b, 3], [c, 1], [d, 1], [e, 1]].
How it works
bagof(true,member(X,List),Xs) is satisfied for each distinct element of the list X with Xs being a list with its length equal to the number of occurrences of X in List:
?- bagof(true,member(X,[a,b,c,b,e,d,a,b,a]),Xs).
X = a,
Xs = [true, true, true] ;
X = b,
Xs = [true, true, true] ;
X = c,
Xs = [true] ;
X = d,
Xs = [true] ;
X = e,
Xs = [true].
The outer findall/3 collects element X and the length of the associated list Xs in a list that represents the solution.
Edit I: the original answer was improved thanks to suggestions from CapelliC and Boris.
Edit II: setof/3 can be used instead of findall/3 if there are free variables in the given list. The problem with setof/3 is that for an empty list it will fail, hence a special clause must be introduced.
count_occurrences([],[]).
count_occurrences(List, Occ):-
setof([X,L], Xs^(bagof(a,member(X,List),Xs), length(Xs,L)), Occ).
Note that so far all proposals have difficulties with lists that contain also variables. Think of the case:
?- count_occurrences([a,X], D).
There should be two different answers.
X = a, D = [a-2]
; dif(X, a), D = [a-1,X-1].
The first answer means: the list [a,a] contains a twice, and thus D = [a-2]. The second answer covers all terms X that are different to a, for those, we have one occurrence of a and one occurrence of that other term. Note that this second answer includes an infinity of possible solutions including X = b or X = c or whatever else you wish.
And if an implementation is unable to produce these answers, an instantiation error should protect the programmer from further damage. Something along:
count_occurrences(Xs, D) :-
( ground(Xs) -> true ; throw(error(instantiation_error,_)) ),
... .
Ideally, a Prolog predicate is defined as a pure relation, like this one. But often, pure definitions are quite inefficient.
Here is a version that is pure and efficient. Efficient in the sense that it does not leave open any unnecessary choice points. I took #dasblinkenlight's definition as source of inspiration.
Ideally, such definitions use some form of if-then-else. However, the traditional (;)/2 written
( If_0 -> Then_0 ; Else_0 )
is an inherently non-monotonic construct. I will use a monotonic counterpart
if_( If_1, Then_0, Else_0)
instead. The major difference is the condition. The traditional control constructs relies upon the success or failure of If_0 which destroys all purity. If you write ( X = Y -> Then_0 ; Else_0 ) the variables X and Y are unified and at that very point in time the final decision is made whether to go for Then_0 or Else_0. What, if the variables are not sufficiently instantiated? Well, then we have bad luck and get some random result by insisting on Then_0 only.
Contrast this to if_( If_1, Then_0, Else_0). Here, the first argument must be some goal that will describe in its last argument whether Then_0 or Else_0 is the case. And should the goal be undecided, it can opt for both.
count_occurrences(Xs, D) :-
foldl(el_dict, Xs, [], D).
el_dict(K, [], [K-1]).
el_dict(K, [KV0|KVs0], [KV|KVs]) :-
KV0 = K0-V0,
if_( K = K0,
( KV = K-V1, V1 is V0+1, KVs0 = KVs ),
( KV = KV0, el_dict(K, KVs0, KVs ) ) ).
=(X, Y, R) :-
equal_truth(X, Y, R).
This definition requires the following auxiliary definitions:
if_/3, equal_truth/3, foldl/4.
If you use SWI-Prolog, you can do :
:- use_module(library(lambda)).
count_occurrences(L, R) :-
foldl(\X^Y^Z^(member([X,N], Y)
-> N1 is N+1,
select([X,N], Y, [X,N1], Z)
; Z = [[X,1] | Y]),
L, [], R).
One thing that should make solving the problem easier would be to design a helper predicate to increment the count.
Imagine a predicate that takes a list of pairs [SomeAtom,Count] and an atom whose count needs to be incremented, and produces a list that has the incremented count, or [SomeAtom,1] for the first occurrence of the atom. This predicate is easy to design:
increment([], E, [[E,1]]).
increment([[H,C]|T], H, [[H,CplusOne]|T]) :-
CplusOne is C + 1.
increment([[H,C]|T], E, [[H,C]|R]) :-
H \= E,
increment(T, E, R).
The first clause serves as the base case, when we add the first occurrence. The second clause serves as another base case when the head element matches the desired element. The last case is the recursive call for the situation when the head element does not match the desired element.
With this predicate in hand, writing count_occ becomes really easy:
count_occ([], []).
count_occ([H|T], R) :-
count_occ(T, Temp),
increment(Temp, H, R).
This is Prolog's run-of-the-mill recursive predicate, with a trivial base clause and a recursive call that processes the tail, and then uses increment to account for the head element of the list.
Demo.
You have gotten answers. Prolog is a language which often offers multiple "correct" ways to approach a problem. It is not clear from your answer if you insist on any sort of order in your answers. So, ignoring order, one way to do it would be:
Sort the list using a stable sort (one that does not drop duplicates)
Apply a run-length encoding on the sorted list
The main virtue of this approach is that it deconstructs your problem to two well-defined (and solved) sub-problems.
The first is easy: msort(List, Sorted)
The second one is a bit more involved, but still straight forward if you want the predicate to only work one way, that is, List --> Encoding. One possibility (quite explicit):
list_to_rle([], []).
list_to_rle([X|Xs], RLE) :-
list_to_rle_1(Xs, [[X, 1]], RLE).
list_to_rle_1([], RLE, RLE).
list_to_rle_1([X|Xs], [[Y, N]|Rest], RLE) :-
( dif(X, Y)
-> list_to_rle_1(Xs, [[X, 1],[Y, N]|Rest], RLE)
; succ(N, N1),
list_to_rle_1(Xs, [[X, N1]|Rest], RLE)
).
So now, from the top level:
?- msort([a,b,c,a,b,c,d], Sorted), list_to_rle(Sorted, RLE).
Sorted = [a, a, b, b, c, c, d],
RLE = [[d, 1], [c, 2], [b, 2], [a, 2]].
On a side note, it is almost always better to prefer "pairs", as in X-N, instead of lists with two elements exactly, as in [X, N]. Furthermore, you should keep the original order of the elements in the list, if you want to be correct. From this answer:
rle([], []).
rle([First|Rest],Encoded):-
rle_1(Rest, First, 1, Encoded).
rle_1([], Last, N, [Last-N]).
rle_1([H|T], Prev, N, Encoded) :-
( dif(H, Prev)
-> Encoded = [Prev-N|Rest],
rle_1(T, H, 1, Rest)
; succ(N, N1),
rle_1(T, H, N1, Encoded)
).
Why is it better?
we got rid of 4 pairs of unnecessary brackets in the code
we got rid of clutter in the reported solution
we got rid of a whole lot of unnecessary nested terms: compare .(a, .(1, [])) to -(a, 1)
we made the intention of the program clearer to the reader (this is the conventional way to represent pairs in Prolog)
From the top level:
?- msort([a,b,c,a,b,c,d], Sorted), rle(Sorted, RLE).
Sorted = [a, a, b, b, c, c, d],
RLE = [a-2, b-2, c-2, d-1].
The presented run-length encoder is very explicit in its definition, which has of course its pros and cons. See this answer for a much more succinct way of doing it.
refining joel76 answer:
count_occurrences(L, R) :-
foldl(\X^Y^Z^(select([X,N], Y, [X,N1], Z)
-> N1 is N+1
; Z = [[X,1] | Y]),
L, [], R).

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